The #WhyNotUs Avalanche seemed to be headed toward a #BecauseThat'sWhy answer from the Minnesota Wild in Game 1 of their Western Conference first-round playoff series Thursday night.

A team that appeared nervous much of the night in a favored, home-ice role against the Wild regrouped to pull out a nearly miraculous 5-4 overtime victory at a sold-out, delirious Pepsi Center.

Paul Stastny tied the score with 13.4 seconds in regulation, then won the game at 7:27 of overtime. Game 2 is Saturday night, also at the Pepsi Center.

Erik Johnson made the inspirational play of the game for the Avalanche with 1:32 left in regulation — then contributed to Stastny's tying goal, sending the series opener into overtime.

Paul Stastnyof the Colorado Avalanche celebrates his game-tying goal in the third period of Game 1 against the Wild on Thursday. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)

With the Wild leading 4-3, and the Avs with an empty net, Johnson crashed into the goalpost and swiped away the puck to prevent a goal that likely would have clinched the win for the Wild. After that stunning save, Avs coach Patrick Roy called a timeout and drew up strategy, but fortunate bounces also helped Colorado pull off Stastny's tying goal.

After the Wild had control of the puck but failed to clear it out of the Avs' zone, Johnson's attempted shot against Wild goalie Ilya Bryzgalov deflected off to the right side to Stastny, who had time and space to get off a shot past a late-sliding Bryzgalov. Tie game, 4-4. Overtime.

At that point, the #WhyNotUs Avs team of the regular season seemed back.

Advertisement

"What a comeback!" Johnson said. "That's the kind of stuff you dream of when you're a kid, winning playoff games like that."

About his game-saving play, Johnson said: "At first, I didn't think it had enough speed, then I didn't think I was going to be able to get to it in time."

Roy breathed a sigh of relief, along with the Colorado fans, when Johnson saved the day.

"Johnson's play was certainly a key moment," Roy said. "There were a lot of key moments. Sometimes you don't always play your best game, but we found a way to win. I liked how resilient we were. You could have all kinds of plans you want, but when your team is resilient like that, it was the key. I think this win will give us some momentum going forward."

The loose, no-pressure underdog Avs of the regular season seemed nervous and uncomfortable in the role of home-ice favorites for much of the first two periods, especially the second.

"We had a lot of guys playing their first playoff game and maybe we were a little nervous at first," Statsny said. "I think we started playing more of our game in the end."

The Avs, good at protecting leads with smart, fundamental team defense and goaltending during the regular season, made a few uncharacteristic mistakes that allowed Minnesota to take a 4-2, second-period lead. One of the biggest miscues was a slow line change that the Wild took advantage of for a tiebreaking goal by forward Erik Haula with 3:52 left in the second period, nearly four minutes after Colorado's Ryan O'Reilly scored on a slap shot to make it a 2-2 game. That goal got the Pepsi Center rocking.

With the Avs' fourth line scrambling to get on the ice following a line change, Haula was alone on the left side near the Avs' blue line and accepted a lead pass from teammate Jonas Brodin. He sneaked down the left side with a step on the field and slipped a shot through the 5-hole of Avs goalie Semyon Varlamov to make it 3-2.

Just 2:04 later, the Avs made another fundamental mistake and the Wild made them pay — again. Kyle Brodziak scored at 18:15 after Avs defenders Johnson and Jan Hejda were in the corner playing a puck.

But they didn't take control of it, allowing Matt Cooke to sneak in and slip a pass out front that Brodziak easily converted for a 4-2 lead.

The Pepsi Center crowd fell silent at that point, but came alive again with just under 13 minutes remaining in the third period, when Jamie McGinn scored on a rebound to cut the Wild's lead to 4-3. O'Reilly set up that goal, stealing a lazy pass by Brodziak to feed McGinn.

It got a lot louder at the end of regulation. Roy pulled Varla- mov with 3:01 left — and the Avs peppered Bryzgalov in a wild finish.

"Any time you come back like that in a playoff game, luck is on your side," Johnson said. "Yeah, we played a good game toward the end. We'll take it, but we realize we have to play a lot better and they outplayed us."

Avalanche's three stars

Paul Stastny Avalanche center got the game-tying goal in the final seconds of regulation, then the game-ender in overtime. A game for the ages.

Nathan MacKinnon Avalanche rookie had three assists in the Colorado come-from-behind win, showing why he was a deserving No. 1 pick.

Ryan O'Reilly Back at center, he had a goal and an assist for Colorado. His steal of a Kyle Brodziak pass was huge in getting Colorado back in the game.

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.